Father's Day
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: AU onshot set after "The Grand Gesture". After Gabby walks out on their marriage, Matt Casey goes to Kelly's apartment for advice, but instead winds up getting help from an unexpected source.


Father's Day

Casey walked up to Severide's door and knocked on it, hoping that Kelly wasn't busy at the moment. Behind him the sun was disappearing in the west and everything on the block was tinted a golden pink hue, to other people it might've actually been something beautiful. But at that moment, Casey felt like all the color had gone out of his life.

The door opened, but it wasn't who he was expecting to see.

"Matt."

"Benny." Casey's eyes widened at the sight of Severide's dad, "I didn't know you were visiting."

"Yeah neither did Kelly, I popped in on him a couple hours ago," Benny responded with a chuckle, "boy was he surprised."

"I see...is Kelly here?"

"Oh sorry, he won't be back till later," the retired smoke eater said.

Casey turned towards the street and said confusedly, "His car's here."

"Oh yeah," Benny said, "he didn't like the way mine was sounding. I told him it's made the same sound for 30 years, but he thinks he knows better, so he took it to have it looked at. Why don't you come on in and have a beer?"

"Uh...thanks but no thanks, I just needed to talk to Kelly about something, I'll catch him later," Casey said, and turned to head back down the stairs.

"Matt," the senior Severide called to him. Casey turned around, Benny offered, "You want to talk to me about what it is?"

"Oh...no thanks, it's nothing really."

Benny nodded with a friendly smile, then said, "You're lying. What's eating you?"

Casey sighed. "It's a long story."

Benny shrugged dismissively, "I got the time. Come on in and I'll get us a couple beers."

Casey really didn't think Benny was the person to talk to about his problems, but he didn't want to offend Severide's dad either, so reluctantly, he stepped inside.

"So what's the problem, Matt?" Benny asked as he closed the door.

"Uh..." Casey looked around the apartment. "No offense, Benny, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable talking to you about it."

"Why not? If it's a guy problem those days of embarrassment should be long since over."

"Actually it's a wife problem," Casey replied.

"Well then you came to the expert," Benny boasted as he strutted over to the fridge and got two bottles of beer. As he came back towards the living room he asked Casey, "So what's the matter with the missus?"

"She left me," Casey answered bluntly.

Benny's face transformed into an expression of disbelief. "Seriously?"

Casey nodded.

"You mean that uh..." the name escaped Benny, he snapped his fingers as he tried to recall, "that cute little paramedic, that one?"

"Yeah, Gabby Dawson."

"Gabby, right, sweet girl...she _left_ you?" Benny asked in shock.

"She walked out on me this afternoon," Casey confessed in a less than proud tone.

"Why?" Benny asked.

Casey shrugged his shoulders, "I really have no idea...well...actually that's a lie. I have an idea, but it'd take too long to explain."

Benny shrugged in response and said, "I'm free tonight. Go on and sit down, I'll get us a couple _more_ beers."

* * *

Casey had never spent any time with Kelly's father in general, but especially not one on one, and he was surprised at the direction that conversation took. The two men sat on the couch and drank a couple six-packs of beer as Casey explained the situation to Benny, in more details than he'd openly shared with anyone at 51, even Severide had no idea how bad things had gotten lately, and as he spilled his guts to Kelly's dad, Casey wasn't sure that had Severide been home that night, that Kelly would've been able to keep up with the course of events as his narrative twisted and turned about all the issues that had come between he and Gabby, not just in the last couple weeks but more so over the past couple years. He'd lost track of time and didn't know how late it was, and it barely registered in his mind that Kelly still wasn't back yet. It was weird to acknowledge, but he was actually enjoying talking to Benny about his problems, who heard him out, didn't blame him for his marriage falling apart, and didn't berate him for the things he'd said to Gabby.

"I don't know where it all went wrong," Casey said as he put down the latest empty bottle on the coffee table.

"Sounds like it was never quite 'right' to begin with, Matt," Benny told him. "You're young so I'll let you in on a secret...sometimes marriages just don't work out."

Casey laughed, "And you're the voice of experience."

"Damn right...oh sure there were things about each wife and each marriage I enjoyed very much...but some relationships just aren't meant to work, Casey, I've proven that time and again for the last 30 years. Now it's hard to admit when two people aren't meant to be together, but sometimes that's just the way it is."

"But everything went so well in the beginning."

"Yeah, that's how you wind up being married ten times, things are always great in the beginning, even a lemon can last a few thousand miles before trouble starts, then the whole thing just becomes toxic," Benny replied. "This is Gabby's loss, not yours."

"It doesn't feel that way, Benny," Casey said.

"You'll get over that. Look, Matt, I know it's the popular belief that if two people in a relationship try hard enough, they can make it last. But you can spend your whole life trying to fix something that was never _meant_ to work, it's better to get out while there's still time and save yourself," Kelly's dad told him. "Don't get me wrong, I loved all the women I married, sometimes I still do...but the marriages just weren't any good...longest one I had was Kelly's mom, I really tried with that one but it just didn't work out, so I left, and I know they both resent me for it even after all this time, but I just had to do it."

Casey looked at the older firefighter and asked, "You ever explain it to Kelly?"

"Eh, he's got enough of his mother in him that he wouldn't listen even if I did," Benny said. "It's alright, I got used to being the bad guy long ago, it is what it is. All things considered we do pretty well now."

Casey nodded, his eyes burned and his eyelids felt heavy, every time he blinked they stayed shut a little longer.

"This is just a shock right now, Matt, in a couple days you'll bounce back from it."

"I'm not sure about that," Casey closed his eyes again and felt his chin drop down to his chest, then immediately picked it back up and forced his eyes open.

"You'll be fine," Benny told him. "Guy like you could have any woman he wants, where you went wrong was getting involved with someone on the job. In my day there weren't women firefighters, and thank God for that..." he laughed. "I know, that's not PC, but it's the truth, if there had, and I got involved with one of them, or _any_ of us back in the day for that matter, that would've been suicide, both career wise and literally. I made sure the women I was with couldn't be further from the firehouse if they tried."

Casey was struggling to keep his eyes open but he managed to get out a slightly humorous, "And look how well _that_ turned out."

Benny laughed. "True, true, but I always kept my head on the job, that's easier to do when you're not sleeping with someone at the firehouse."

Casey yawned and folded his arms against his chest. "Amen." He forced his eyes open again and looked at the gray haired man. "Thanks, Benny."

"No problem, Matt."

Casey yawned again and pressed his head back against the couch and got out a slightly slurred, "You really are a good dad."

Benny looked over at the captain who was just about dead to the world, and said with a small smile, "Wish you'd tell my son that."

* * *

Kelly opened the door, marched into his apartment and told Benny before he even bothered to look around the place, "That car of yours is a certifiable death trap, it-" and then he froze.

Benny was sitting on the couch and gestured for Kelly to be quiet, and had a warning gleam in his eyes as he nodded his head towards Casey, who had fallen asleep and sometime during the night leaned to the side and had his head resting on Benny's shoulder. Kelly felt like he'd just stepped into the Twilight Zone.

The elder Severide carefully pushed Casey's head up off his shoulder and propped him up against the cushions again and he stood up and motioned for Kelly to follow him to the kitchen.

"What happened? What's Casey doing here?" Kelly asked.

"He came over to talk, you weren't here," Benny said simply. "By the way, you're out of beer."

"What-what do you mean he came over to talk? About what?" Kelly asked.

Benny looked at his son and answered, "Kelly, his wife left him."

Kelly's eyes bulged. "What?"

"Apparently they got in some big fight and Gabby stormed off...he came over to talk to you, you weren't here, so we chatted instead," Benny said nonchalantly, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, which did nothing but absolutely confuse his son.

"About what?" Kelly asked, still not able to fully comprehend what his father had told him.

Benny looked at Kelly and didn't say anything at first, then he answered, "About how he's going to get through this, and it isn't the end of the world, and if this is how she treats a guy after 3 years of marriage, she wasn't the one for him anyway, you know, stuff like that that a guy needs to hear the _first_ time his marriage falls apart, so he knows it's not just something wrong with him."

"And what would you know about marriages working?" Kelly asked.

Benny glared at him for a second, and opened his mouth, then immediately closed it, then opened it again, his brain having switched gears on how to respond. "Kelly, you're my son, and I love you, no matter what was going on between me and your mom, I always did, but this is something you don't know anything about, and I do." After that he came down a notch and he said in a slightly softer tone, "He needed to hear a voice of experience tonight. He needed to know he's not alone."

Suddenly Kelly felt like he was 10 years old again getting his ass chewed out when he screwed up.

"Sorry, Pop, I just...I can't believe this, Gabby's gone?"

"Apparently."

"She's actually gone?"

"Don't think she's coming back, Kelly, to Matt or to 51, I'm sorry."

"How-wha-why would she do that?"

"I can guess, but you won't want to hear it," Benny told him.

Kelly looked like the rug was just pulled out from under him. "This is unreal."

"Yeah, try seeing it from Matt's side," Benny replied.

Kelly turned around and headed out of the kitchen and over to the couch. He thought that Casey was out cold, but as he got closer to the Truck captain, Matt just barely opened his eyes and slurred both from exhaustion and the beers he'd had, "Kelly? Kelly is that you?"

"Yeah, Casey, it's me."

"Kelly," Casey's eyes closed again as he managed to get out a very inebriated, "I love you."

Kelly turned towards his dad and the two looked at each other with similar expressions of surprise. Benny put his hands up and said, "What you two do is your own business."

"Knock it off, Pop," Kelly said.

"Hey, you could do worse," Benny teased.

Kelly jabbed an elbow towards his dad. Then he turned back to Casey and forced the blonde man's eyes open and saw nobody was home.

"Well he's definitely not driving out of here tonight," Kelly said as he let go and Casey slumped down lengthwise on the couch. He turned to Benny and started to say, "I can get him out to the car and take him home-"

"Nah, just let him sleep it off, I already got a motel room close by," Benny told him as he headed for the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, Kelly."

"Okay," Kelly said hesitantly. He followed Benny out the door and told him, "Thanks for being there for him tonight, Dad."

"Yeah well, that's my job," Benny said lightly as he headed down the stairs, "You kids grow up, and you _still_ need someone to keep an eye on you from time to time." He got halfway to his car when he turned back and hollered up at his son, "By the way, Kelly."

"Yeah?" he called down.

Benny looked at him and told him, "As my son, I love you more than anything...but if I can be honest, I think Matt could do better than you."

_"Dad_!"

Benny Severide laughed all the way to his car.

* * *

Casey groaned as he moved around slowly on the couch. Kelly smoothed back the damp hairs stuck to his forehead.

"Morning."

Casey opened his eyes and gradually the blurry picture of Severide came into focus.

"What time is it?" he groaned.

"It's morning," Kelly answered as he held out a coffee mug in offering.

Casey rubbed one eye and reached out to grab the mug. "Thanks."

"I'm sorry about Gabby," Kelly told him.

Casey paused. "I told you about that?"

"No, you told Benny, and he told me."

"Benny?" Casey's eyebrows furrowed together in puzzlement. "I don't remember...oh...that's right, he was here last night..." Casey's body didn't want to move too much yet but he glanced around the apartment. "He still here?"

"No, he left last night."

"Oh," Casey laid his head back against the pillow.

"What was it like?" Kelly asked.

"What?"

"Talking to Benny."

"...Interesting," Casey answered as he sat up. "I liked talking to him...turns out we actually have something in common. We both suck at marriage."

Kelly laughed.

Casey looked at Severide and told him, "I like your dad."

"Yeah, he rubs off on you," Kelly responded.

"You're lucky," Casey said.

There was a somber moment of silence between them.

"He likes you too," Kelly finally said. That got a small smirk of response from Casey.

"But don't be surprised if next time he comes around he says something about us being a couple."

Casey raised an eyebrow questioningly, "Why would he do that?"

Kelly shook his head. "Just Benny being Benny."


End file.
